This article was originally published on B&T

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We’ve all seen the comparisons. The split screen of the ‘Golden Girls’ cast next to Carie and friends in ‘And Just Like That’. Clearly, older women on screen don’t reflect real life.

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We know that age is more than a number, we’ve made some progress, but storylines for ‘older women’ still fall back into the stereotypes of age and gender. This isn’t just anecdotal either – the Geena Davis Institute was established to track representation in media and film, their 2020 report found that ‘romantic storylines are disproportionately lower for characters 50+, with younger characters two to three times more likely to experience romance.’

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At the other end of the spectrum, we see younger women getting married later (if at all) or delaying starting a family. It’s an extension of this feeling of being a ‘girl’. No responsibilities, no burdens, just you. As a result, we’ve seen ‘girl culture’ amongst younger women spinning off into a million different versions.

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We’ve had Hot Girl Walk, Hot Girl Summer, Girl Math, Tomato Girls and ‘Girly’ girls. Girl isn’t a noun. It’s a verb.

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The boundaries of girlhood and womanhood are blurring as women of all ages find ways to reclaim and redefine what it means to be a ‘girl’. It’s not about rejecting maturity or responsibilities; it’s about holding on to the experience of youth. Take Babygirl, an erotic thriller starring Nicole Kidman as a high-ranking CEO who begins an affair with the intern. The poster for the film shows a submissive Kidman looking up to her lover with the caption, ‘This Christmas, get exactly what you want’. Due for release in December, it’s a passive and innocent title that prompts a double take, especially in the context of girl boss culture promised millennial women they could have it all. The film’s position is an expansion of girl culture through the lens of ‘older women’. Online, the term ‘babygirl’ has been inverted to describe ‘submissive and breedable’ men. This is what culture does – it twists and turns meaning in ways that make you reflect on your own associations.

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Girlhood and womanhood are two extreme identities that women switch between mentally all the time. Demi Moore’s new dark (really dark) comedy ‘The Substance’, is about the horrors of ageing. It depicts the main character swapping bodies with ‘another version of yourself’ – in this case, a younger, more beautiful, version. Youth is not only physical, it’s emotive.

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For marketers, this presents a unique opportunity to tap into the cultural currency of ‘girl culture’ in ways that resonate with older audiences – without diminishing their life experiences or reverting to outdated tropes. This isn’t 50+ women cosplaying as 20-year-olds. Given how many younger and older women are leaning into this extended girlhood, it’s a feeling that binds them. Each ‘girl’ trend is another expression of the whiplash women experience between the ‘girl’ they feel they are and the ‘woman’ they are supposed to be.